Open Cockpit Overhead Gauges

[davemckee]

Does anyone use these in their overhead?, If so how did you backlight them and was it easy to set the gauges up? I noticed in their ad that there didn't appear to be any pexiglass in front of the gauge, was I right? Any info would be helpful. Thanking you in advance Dave

[mrmaster]

Hi, I got the Autobrake Panel with the flap gauge (the diy version) and there was no Plexi faceplate included - I emailed them and they answered once but didn't answer again - I'll try one more mail on monday :shock: I thought they had good support....

[Holclo]

I also got the Autobrake Flap Gauge from Open Cockpits. No plexi front plate was included.
Bill

[Aaron]

Does anyone use these in their overhead?, If so how did you backlight them and was it easy to set the gauges up? I noticed in their ad that there didn't appear to be any pexiglass in front of the gauge, was I right? Any info would be helpful. Thanking you in advance Dave

Hi Dave,

I have the full set of overhead gauges from opencockpits. We backlited them using the same led from the entire overhead, no the best but the easiest. If you want to light them with different color than the rest of the overhead, you should make a little box for the gauge and light it.

Ir order to make it work, is far away from being plug and play. You need two USB-Servo card (six servos every one, the overhead has six gauges, but booth of them have two needles). The servo cards need 5v to work, so you must get the cables from the computer power supply or something like this and conect it to the card (with no molex connector, just two pins). And them, the software.

Im and IT pro, and even for myself was little annoying to make them working as expected. You need to download and install SIOC, and write the scripts for everyone. You have all the information in the website, not always very friendly to find, but you need work on it. You should be prepare for program in an scripting language, even if someone (I can send you my scripts) send you the scripts, you need to modify them to fix them to your systems (servos numbers, number of the card, servos slope, values you get, starts and ends of servos, etc...)

In the pros section, the sioc is very stable software. If you have the skills, you can do anything you want to. And them work as expected always. And not to forget, they are very much cheaper than other!

[blueskydriver]

Aaron,

You've probably figured out by now the OC gauges do not come with the faceplate rings and the plexiglas. You do get these items if you order the OC Overhead complete. I do have the gauges installed in the FDS Overhead, and thanks to Peter and Steve at FDS, they included the rings and plexiglas with the FDS Overhead...

However, what I did was use computer card stand-offs (like those used under a motherboard in a PC), and then drill holes through everything, like a sandwich. Place each sandwich in its respectful place and using LEDs with tape, plus pc component board blanks, I made a box around them to light each gauge (sandwich) up.

Sadly, they're not working yet because I had a defective USB Servo Card at first. Have two cards now, but need time to remove the Overhead and install the cards...no easy task! As for SIOC, so many say "It's easy" it is if you speed a good time learning it. Truthfully, I wish I would've went with Simkits; I have a Simkits flap gauge and it is plug-n-play all the way.

Finally, have you written the SIOC codes for the remaining two gauges, since there is only four to be known working with SIOC. I'd like to get your codes for all six. Will you please send them to me?

Thank you,

BSD

[Nick1150]

.... :shock: I thought they had good support....yeah right !!!!

[mrmaster]

I am still missing two buttons and the v/s wheel came used ?!?!!!!!!!!!!! It had spots with old glue on it... but the panels are very good and perfect for what I need... I am unsure if I'll order their panels again - I probably get the same support at poldragonet and they're ought to be better quality..... and much cheaper

[davemckee]

I haven't purchased the OC overhead gauges yet, and after what I've just read I won't. I'll go with FI...alot more money but all my intruments on the M.I.P. , and they do make an excellent product. Thanks Guys Dave

[Holclo]

Dave
I sent you a PM a couple of days ago.Did you get it?
Bill

[davemckee]

Sent today

[davemckee]

Thanks Aaron. I use Marty Bochanes Prosim and using S.I.O.C. on myCDU. Looking at the script it seems to have everything INCLUDING scripts for the overhead gauges. I'm not concerned about baklighting for I have done that in the past, I AM concerned that these gauges perform properly. Have you downloaded the S.I.O.C. from opencockpits and can you confirm the gauges are in the script? Thanks Dave

[davemckee]

OK, after all is said and done I purchased the OC overhead complete gauge set. Several factors were taken into consideration, but the main reason was the price. Estimated delivery date is this next Wednesday. As I am a novice don't be surprised if I yell "HELP" in the near future. Aaron if you can send me your scripts I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance. Dave

[blueskydriver]

Dave, back lighting is easy. Just do like the way I described earlier. Use some motherboard standoffs to create a gap between the gauge and the backside of the Overhead, and then use leds to box in around the gaps. Thus, you will be lighting from the sides. It works fair enough...

Curious, do they come with the rings and plexi now or just the gauge sets? Whatever you do, make sure you hook them up to the OC cards correctly! Many people have burned their servos and/or USB Servo Card(s) by not having the plugs from the servos in the right way. Just read up on that a bit... Otherwise, you should be happy with these gauges. Although, has all the gauges been written for in SIOC now? Last I knew it was only 3 or 4 of them that worked within SIOC.

Best Regards,

BSD

[Aaron]

I burned two servos in my first try hehe, im still remember the smell, and the servo was conected just 1 or 2 secs.

I forgot to send the servos, next time I went to the sim I will upload them to my dropbox to send back to you.

[davemckee]

OK I got the gauges and the servo cards today, after reading the installation instructions it says I have to use a seperate power source (5 volts) for the servos to work. They DID NOT supply any connectors for the power source. Aaron or whoever...what power source did you use, and where did you obtain the female connector? Thanks Ahead Dave

[Aaron]

Hi Dave,

Yes, they dont supply any connectors. I use a standar 8x8-fan-to-molex cable, solder it to the USB-Servos card board pins, and then connect them to the PC power supply where I have running the overhead systems and SIOC (which was already over the roof of our cockpit)

5829

Cuting the cable near to the fan, and use that cable to join and solder to the male pins on the usb-servos.

Due to the short servos cable I need to cut it and solder more cable to make it longer till I reach the board. I also use the USB-Servos board to manage our tiller (with the analog inputs), so I extend the tiller cable till our overhead too :mrgreen:

You can use a dedicated PC powersupply or a standar powersupply and solder to it directly, but using one of your current PC Power supply you avoid the need to start more and more things every time you want to fly.

This saturday I will send you my scripts.

[davemckee]

OK guys...just to let you know how dumb I am to attempting to know how to work with SIOC. Aaron was nice enough to send me his scripts for the gauges and I wound up with not only the gauges not working but now my OC CDU is inoperative. Can anyonegive me a quick tutorial on assigning scripts to SIOC or work me out of mess I've created? My Best Dave

[davemckee]

ps All gauges are recognized and work with the OC gauge test program. Dave

Another ps, I now have the OC CDU working. I had downloaded the newer version of SIOC (4.01). I got so mad that I uninstalled it and reinstalled the older version (3.something) and as soon as did the CDU isback to working fine again. Now to the gauges.